Prodi faces ‘showdown’ with Santer whistleblower

Date: 06/12/01

By David Cronin

THE man who triggered the collapse of Jacques Santer's Commission has warned that he could spark a "showdown" with Romano Prodi's administration if fresh claims of mismanagement in the EU executive are not probed with adequate vigour.

Dutch official Paul van Buitenen recently sent a dossier outlining several suspected cases of professional wrongdoing in the European Commission to its anti-fraud office, OLAF. He has agreed with the office that it should complete its investigation within six months - and has vowed to alert other EU bodies if OLAF fails to keep to its promise.

"It could be that this will go to another showdown," van Buitenen told European Voice.

A spokesman for OLAF said the documents compiled by van Buitenen are being examined seriously but that it would be premature to say when the investigation would be completed.

Widely known as 'The Whistleblower', the Commission's former internal auditor was key in bringing down the Santer team in 1999. After feeling that incidents of fraud and impropriety within the Commission were not being taken seriously by his superiors, he prepared a litany of allegations for officials of other EU institutions. Containing serious charges of cronyism against former commissioner Edith Cresson, the dossier's explosive revelations eventually led to all 20 members of the Santer team resigning.

Van Buitenen has also strongly attacked proposals by Internal Reform Commissioner Neil Kinnock to establish an advice service to aid officials wishing to report suspected wrongdoing by colleagues.

In a letter published in European Voice today, the Dutchman argues that he is opposed to the 'help-desk' idea because it is an attempt to put the "burden of proof entirely on the shoulders of the whistleblower". He is also perturbed by the requirement that a whistleblower must channel his or her allegations through OLAF, contending "there are circumstances that necessitate direct external disclosure".

"In my opinion, the new procedure has nothing to do with protection of whistleblowers. It tries to dissuade Commission officials from whistle-blowing. A real whistleblowing procedure should leave the Commission official free in his choice of disclosure channels."

But Kinnock's spokesman Eric Mamer said "the burden of proof will ... be on the investigators. The only burden on the whistleblower will be one of honesty in making the allegations and in understanding that if the investigators find out that there was no wrongdoing, this should be accepted."

As punishment for exposing fraud during the Santer years, van Buitenen was suspended on half pay for four months in 1998. Since then, the Commission has spurned all his requests to return to his original job.

Stating that he is unhappy in his current role working for the directorate-general on food safety and consumer protection, he added that he "could be doing much more important things for the Commission that would also match my personal capabilities and my recent experiences".

"Despite wide recognition for what I did, Mr Kinnock still addresses me as that guy who went out on a frolic and went against staff regulations and had to be punished. I am getting frustrated about the lack of reforms and consider the present reforms more and more as just window-dressing."

The man who triggered the collapse of Jacques Santer's Commission has warned that he could spark a 'showdown' with Romano Prodi's administration if fresh claims of mismanagement in the EU executive are not probed with adequate vigour.